Cuban Relief Supplies Delayed

More than 30 tons of rice, beans and powdered milk destined for Cuban hurricane victims remained in warehouses Friday waiting for a government ruling on its distribution.

Roman Catholic relief agencies who sent the food want to distribute it in the area of Cienfuegos on Cuba’s south coast, where Hurricane Lili did some of its heaviest damage two weeks ago.

Lili destroyed nearly 5,500 homes and damaged 79,000. More than 1.6 million acres of sugar cane were devastated, along with 53,000 acres of bananas and 90,000 acres of other crops.

The Cuban government wants to use the shipments as general aid for the poor.

When the agency’s plane arrived last Saturday, the government objected to the word “exile” and the phrase “For Cuba, love conquers all” written on the boxes of aid.

The government insisted on testing each of 105 different types of milk in the shipment.